


Bedtime

by Aloe_kun



Category: Don't Hug Me I'm Scared (Webseries)
Genre: Coffee, Domestic, Gen, Late Night Conversations, No murder, Reading, School, Slice of Life, Tea, Unholy amounts of E numbers, cocoa, suprisingly
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-26
Updated: 2019-01-26
Packaged: 2019-10-16 14:27:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,308
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17551430
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Aloe_kun/pseuds/Aloe_kun
Summary: As evening draws in, things calm down around the house. The perfect time for some uninterrupted quiet reading, right?





	Bedtime

Harry was usually the one out of the trio that went to sleep last.

Manny had school of course, so had an early bedtime at around 8 or 9 o'clock most nights to prepare for his early start. Though he could sometimes get caught up in playing, Tony would be quick to swoop in and remind him that it was approaching bedtime. So long as he got into bed at a reasonable time both the child and Tony were kept happy. He was allowed to stay up later on weekends though, to Tony's displeasure as it threw off the uniform time he'd normally go to sleep.

Robin, despite the birdlike name, was never much of a night owl. He tired easily, and preferred to get a reasonable amount of sleep so he could focus at work. He imagined work as fiddly as tailoring would require quite a lot of concentration, so would never pester him to stay up and finish a show with him; he'd just record it so they could finish it at a later date. His regular time to head to bed tended to be around 10, with his wake up just an hour before Harry's at 6:30 on the dot, and significant part of that extra hour devoted to taming his nest like bedhead. He enjoyed sleeping in when he could, though.

They had never needed to buy an alarm clock since Tony had arrived.

But Harry liked staying up late. It was quieter, with the usual hubbub of the household full of odd people sleepy and relatively peaceful. He didn't really _have_ to get up particularly early for his own 9 to 5 office job, but all the same would usually get up early enough to drink a coffee before seeing Manny off on his way to school. He'd normally walk him to the bus stop, occasionally with a teacher in tow, then head home again for another cup of coffee and breakfast. Then he'd prepare his lunch alongside Robin preparing his, watch TV briefly, and head off. Of course, this often wasn't an easy task with so many inquisitive... Guests...

Evenings were taken up with playing with Manny and making dinner, always a bit of a hassle with so many people about, but manageable. The culinary crew were eager to help at least, but he made a habit of at least supervising them. After dinner things tended to slowly quiet down, unless a teacher decided it was time for a lesson, but they were thankfully growing few and far between. Once Manny went to bed, he'd watch TV with Robin until he went to sleep too.

After that, he'd generally be completely alone for at least an hour. Turning the TV down low, it would become background noise to whatever book he decided to read, with a cup of strong, hot tea -not coffee like in the mornings- next to him, trailing steam into the air. After about an hour, things typically started happening. Not horrible things as he would once have expected, not things that would keep him from sleeping with horrible visions of gore and terror, but things that were all in all surprisingly domestic. But they often varied.

Sometimes it would be Paige, easy to recognise out of the corner of his eye with her colourful hair. He'd never personally seen the point in the style, but whatever. He wasn't going to complain. She'd wander around for a few minutes, before predictably perching on the arm of Harry's chair, smiling sweetly, and asking him to make her a hot cocoa. She'd tried some of one he'd made for Manny once and apparently adored how he made it, so this was a fairly common occurrence. He'd put his book to the side, stand up with a huff of breath, then boil the kettle and make the cocoa while she stole his seat during the time it took for him to make it. She'd claim to be keeping it warm for him with a pout if he brought it up. Once it was made she'd go through and perch on the kitchen counter, slowly drain her mug, then head back to bed with a chirped thank you to him. He'd sit back down and resume reading with a nod of acknowledgement.

Tony would often get up for a drink just after midnight. He knew it was just after midnight not by looking at the clock on the wall or his watch, but because he always heard him coming along the hallway a few minutes after he heard him chiming in his sleep. The teacher would mostly ignore him until he'd downed a glass of water, then would sometimes idly come up behind his chair and read over his shoulder, with some mumbled comment about how he was checking the book was good enough to warrant Harry spending 'precious time' reading it. It was a little unnerving, but over the course of a little while the man would get tired of standing and sleepiness would begin to get the better of him once again. He'd retire back to bed with a quick, cursory "goodnight." Depending on how focused Harry was on the book, the gesture was sometimes returned, sometimes not.

He wasn't sure if Colin ever actually slept or not, really, but would sometimes come away from the computer in his room for a pick me up late at night. He'd be able to hear him coming down the hall tiredly and watch him wander into the kitchen to boil the kettle and dump an absurd amount of instant coffee into a thermos flask, fidgeting while he waited for the water to boil. If he wasn't still half asleep at this point, he'd normally notice Harry by now and give him a quick hello before turning his attention back to the coffee, pouring hot water over the grounds until he'd half filled the thermos, then -ignoring the look of distaste from Harry- would grab a can of some energy drink from the fridge and pour it in as well, making some kind of unholy cocktail of caffeine and E numbers that he'd then take back to his room.

It was rare to see Shrignold or the Culinary crew up late, but when he did it was almost always making late night cookies. There would without a shadow of a doubt be a hushed debate on what cookies cutters to use, which would usually result in half the cookies being odd shaped blobs and half being neatly cut hearts. There had been some odd flavour combinations in the past, but thankfully nothing inedible or dangerous as he was typically roped into taste testing. They'd pester him until he stood up with a sigh and put his book to the side, taking his empty teacup through to put on the side while he was up anyway and pick up a cookie with the group watching with bated breath as he ate it, then gave his verdict. Even if they didn't actually taste great, he'd usually tell them they were good so they'd all go off to bed happy.

He would normally go to sleep a short time after midnight, not wishing to meet that lamp teacher that was so intent on teaching about dreams. If he stayed up too late they doubtlessly appeared and would begin to ask him why he wasn't asleep and dreaming, and if he was still awake because he didn't know _how_ to dream. Before they could launch into song however, he would quickly shut his book and go off to bed, ignoring the disappointed cries behind him as he began to get ready for bed.

He wasn't going to be part of a lesson, not that late at night. He still had to get up for work, after all.

**Author's Note:**

> I've been procrastinating on writing for a while lmao, sorry about the lack of posts! I'll be getting back into the swing of things soon!


End file.
